Boston Musings and In-Game Scribbles
November 5, 2009, by Homme De Sept-Iles
My English is as good as yours, I just write these in a stream-of-consciousness mode that I insist excuses me from small things like rules of grammar or general etiquette. Let’s call it conversational English, hopped up on beans. You know what kind of beans (no, Carl Mellesmoen, not the magic ones)
Montreal Canadiens (7-8) host Boston Bruins (6-7-1)
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Game Sixteen (score posted following scribbles)
Musings and In-Game Scribbles are a “live blogging” of the game that are compiled (typed, actually) during the game and edited and posted shortly after the game.
Phil Kessell is no longer a Boston Bruin. His 36 goals last season led the team. He is now a Toronto Maple Leaf and I predict he won’t ever match that goal total again.
Ryan White and Tom Pyatt are called up from Hamilton tonight for the Canadiens. They are both 23 years-old or younger. Both are forwards.
Carey Price will be starting his tenth game tonight and Tim Thomas is in net for Boston.
First Period
Plekanec, Lapierre and Latendresse are on the ice to start for Montreal.
Early breakout for Montreal. Hamrlik lead pass. But no possession deep. The line has to dump in and the first line, the real first line, jumps on.
Long shot from Boston is captured by Price.
Steve Begin is wearing number 27 for Boston. He had a brief early presence. Ninety seconds elapsed.
Two against one. Pacioretty’s pass to Metropolit is tipped. Pacioretty comes up with it and circles the net. Backhander. Goal. But the refs wave it off. Chara and Gionta hear what the ref has to say and Martin is glancing everywhere looking for the answer. Moen is called for goaltender interference. It’s not a power-play but it wipes out the goal.
At what point in a player’s career does he stop getting demoted? His fourth year? His fifth year?
Chipchura and Stewart are absent for White and Pyatt. The two new players are on a line with Andrei Demo(ted) Kostitsyn.
Gorges’ development has been unnoticed but steady. Makes the right play almost every time.
Typing with your head up is the same idea as skating with your head up.
Metropolit loses a faceoff deep in Boston’s zone. But the line recovers and controls for about eight seconds. Then Mara come up and extends the Montreal possession. Finally Bruin Mark Stuart gets it to Andrew Ferrence for a clearout. Montreal is tenacious and beating Boston to the puck for the most part early.
White is wearing #53. Pyatt is wearing #94. Yanic Perrault’s old number.
Now Price has to stop a long high shot. He keeps it for a faceoff.
Gomez line. Loses the faceoff.
They recover the puck.
Carle sends Gionta a long puck (ha, ha, you’re hilarious). But the line recovers to create a couple of harmless shots including a long one from Hamrlik that goes wide. Thomas captures it by the side of the net and the players get the TV timeout.
Second line. Two Frenchmen and a Czech. Just wanted to see what it would sound like. Could be a clever menu item.
Boston chance. Price is out of the crease but two Canadiens including Bergeron are alert and clear the puck out of the area. Bergeron was the man, in fact.
Metropolit line. Okay work.
Fourth line now generates some good pressure. Pyatt is parked right in front of Thomas and gets knocked backward over Thomas.
Patrice Bergeron drives down and tries to split two Montreal defenders. Doesn’t really get through. Gets downed and the puck rides to Price’s glove where it is moused harmlessly.
Marco Sturm accelerates and forces the defensive back. Turns and fakes a shot once he has space. Fires finally. Stopped and frozen by Price.
Ryder tries a distance shot that Price stops as well. Another high shot on Price. He’s handled all of them easily today. Try something else.
Boston is not dominating the Canadiens as some may have feared or expected (I’ll grant the shot difference). Quality chances are perhaps even, if not in favour of Montreal. Lucic’ absence makes a difference for the Broons. Puck possession is about the same.
We are told about the upcoming Hamilton Bulldogs game at the Bell Centre this Friday. They normally play at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, of course. This game will see them confront the Binghamton Senators. Hamilton is Montreal’s minor-league AHL affiliate. And for those who must know, Montreal’s minor-league ECHL affiliate is Cincinnatti Cyclones.
Gionta gets a solid chance. Best presence by any line thus far. Boston responds with some great control of their own. Begin is working well. No shots result.
But they force Montreal to ice it.
We see Cammalleri beat Chara one-on-one for a puck. I don’t want to hear any more talk about size in sports analysis again. Just don’t talk sports if you have to reduce things to that level. It’s inaccurate and it’s not worth stating. It’s how you play not how you photograph. The eye-test is for the runway (maybe either) or for Tony Mandarich. Give me pancakes and hit stats in the pros not potential and talk-show wit with college flair.
If you want to know what help defence or help offence is, watch Travis Moen. Not Andrei Kostitsyn. Moen helps out behind the Bruin net when he sees a teammate trapped with two Bruins.
It’s tempting to make general statements about what’s happening in a game but each shift is different and is independent of what happened beforehand. Staying in the moment is just as relevant for observers as well as participators.
White looks gassed.
But he gets the puck up and out of the zone before signaling to get off the ice. That pass leads to a breakout by Kostitsyn who beats his man gets around him and then goes around the net looking for a wrap-around. Can’t get that but the leftover is banged in by Metropolit. Easily. Every Bruin was torqued out of synch. Replay shows that it was a pass. What speed and control.
Montreal 1, Boston 0.
The temptations of talent. Very few have Kostitsyn’s combination of size, speed, stick-handling and shot. He will be in the NHL a long while even if he doesn’t bloom. One team or another will give him that chance.
One minute left in the first period.
Fourth line is back on. Kostitsyn sees a deep sprint-curl result in a turnover but he surprisingly chases the puck back out of the zone and gets it back inside the Montreal blue line. Great backcheck.
He said this week that his career and his brother Sergei’s are different and independent of one another. He had been asked whether Sergei’s circumstances were affecting him. All Kostitsyn has to do is add back-checking and some dirty work to his game and he’ll be on his way. The other stuff he can add as it goes (getting to the net, knowing when to help on the boards).
First Intermission
There’s some best one hundred Canadiens players promotion going on and former Canadiens Stephane Richer and Pierre Larouche are ranked 34th and 65th, respectively. Neither should be on the list. Consistency is more important than flashes of greatness.
Alain Crete respects Francois Gagnon. I can now officially confirm it. Gagnon is giving us his study of the Kessel move. He shows us how that trade and the Kobasew and Recchi trades have put Boston in position to select several first and second round players over the coming two drafts. Great choice for a brief intermission piece. Boston has to draft well but this is an example of their ongoing good work.
But their mistakes and last season’s early elimination don’t yoke them in the way Montreal’s failures do. It’s easy to look around and see other teams doing better and wonder why the Canadiens “can’t be like…..” whoever, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Boston, name the team. Montreal made the playoffs last season despite all sorts of obstacles but the way the season is perceived and talked about, a visiting hockey student might think the Canadiens finished last in the league. The expectations were unrealistically high (Stanley Cup win and a first place finish in the East) and when the team failed to meet those expectations the resulting eighth place playoff spot was still seen as a move from penthouse to outhouse.
It’s true that the team could have done a lot better. But in failing to meet the highest of goals by finishing in the middle of the pack, albeit in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the team was perceived as having finished with the least of results and at the back of the pack.
It’s the Dynasty Hangover and it haunts any team with a long record of success but somehow with the attendant political and cultural schisms present for the Canadiens (they are a cultural icon who carry the hopes not just of sports fans but of cultural enthusiasts, language protectionists and other complex interests) that hangover manifests itself more painfully.
We have a brief, pleasant interview with former Canadien Steve Begin to preface the second period.
Second Period
Montreal 1, Boston 0
Houde says that, more and more, Roman Hamrlik is becoming the big leader on defence for the Canadiens.
Boston muddles around under their blue line and it costs them a shot by Montreal. Luckily for them it goes wide.
Gionta line is beating every Bruin on the ice. Boston looks like they don’t care as a result. I think it’s just Gionta’s and Cammalleri’s intensity. But then Metropolit’s line does the same. And the Bruins seem more timid.
Moen goes to the box for interference. Bumped a Bruin on the way in to the zone. It appeared inadvertent but it’s a fair call. Boston goes to the power-play.
Boston’s power-play is catastrophic according to Houde. We hear that it’s at eleven percent. A normal average is between 17-20% depending on the season or the circumstances.
Carey Price. Great save. Somebody is getting better results. Good for him. Goes left and then half his body has to go right simultaneously. Life of a goalie. Yeah, he did it. In the meantime, Spacek goes down on the play.
Really impressive save. Showing his great flexibility and athleticism. Puck is frozen. Play is paused to attend to Spacek. He has to leave the ice and goes to the dressing room before we resume.
Bergeron gets a shot from the high slot. High one. Price traps it. Price is playing noticeably better hockey since his return to regular action since Halak’s run of games. It’s one small thing to feel really good about this season.
Price makes another good save on the power-play. Marco Sturm takes a holding the stick penalty. The save was the kind that gets easily forgotten but is not made by an average goalie having an average run. It’s the kind of save that adds up to about five in a game to give a team a 2-1 win instead of a five-flub 5-2 loss. Carey Price is keeping Montreal in this game. And the rest of the team is also playing well against an admittedly under-manned Boston club. But we can admit that being without Markov, O’Byrne and Sergei Kostitsyn makes this team undermanned, as well. Now, can’t we?
Canadiens are going to the power-play. Then Chara cross-checks Gionta a few times while the small forward is on the ice and Montreal will get about 40 seconds with a 5-on-three.
What a chance. Stick on puck on line. Thomas is a one-hand fisherman. Keeps it out. Gionta. Best and only chance of that sequence.
Now to five-on-four.
But they pause to review whether the ocean goal was in or not. They rule no. And the replay supports it.
Boston survives the minute. Crowd cheers and then comes alive. Yelling “let’s go Bruins” in their accented, rough young voices.
Boston shows more urgency. Montreal seems out of sorts with this development and are in disarray. Close to taking a penalty.
Boston now makes it look like a power-play. Price. Great job jabbing at the puck while it’s in a crowd in front of him. Nobody else was able to help. One Bruin with his back to the goalie. Price’s heat melted that.
Another Boston chance with five or six guys plasticined together in front of Price.
Montreal shows some jump to help their 22-year old teammate and put some pressure on Thomas themselves. It doesn’t last long and Boston makes Price come up with another better-than-average save.
Canadiens are doing a lot of things well tonight. But only have one goal to show for it. I hope the team can generate a few if only to reflect the truth of their work tonight. Scores have their virtues but I wouldn’t want my work reduced to a score. It would do it an injustice.
There are many kinds of work where reduction to a final score would take away from the efforts made. Therapy comes to mind. Wedding coordinating. Or comedy. Teaching. Community-building. Raising a child. Ruining a country. Making an omelette.
Four twenty-four left in the second period.
I think Jacques Martin has the firm uncle persona that Andrei Kostitsyn needs. Firm but fair. I predict Martin will reach Andrei.
Winning and losing doesn’t seem to matter in what I consider a rebuilding year but I’d like to see this one go in the bank in the black. Err. Red. Um. White and blue. Not gold. Uh. Whatever.
Little scrum after the whistle results in a four-on four.
Boston drives down and somehow Price loses the puck on a glove-on. Really unlucky. The net was moving. It was lifted up. But I don’t know if that will help the Canadiens. They have to check it. Martin is demanding the same.
They check.
A second angle shows that the puck got in unfairly. Side of the net went up and the puck got in that way.
Ruling is no goal. Boston crowd hears the explanation from a ref with a French accent. Great. I have to chuckle. But it wasn’t in and this is why I like the replay in hockey.
Remember that time Robinson beat Davidson and nobody saw it go in and out of the net? (78-79 Stanley Cup Finals) Montreal won anyway but it should have been 6-2. Not 5-2.
We resume the four-on-four.
When the smart, older, more experienced players are on the ice for Montreal, I’m at my happiest.
Smart movement by Gionta, Spacek and Metropolit.
And we go back to five-on-five.
Price makes a good save on a Recchi incursion.
Some nights it’s your power-play. Some nights it’s your forecheck. Some nights it’s your faceoff game. Tonight it’s Carey Price. I’m glad to see it.
Period closes with minimal tree-shaking.
Second Intermission
Joel Bouchard gets ready to give us our lesson.
We see excellent back-checking from the defenders and then some great reading from Gomez. Joel is very clear and insightful. Love it. And so do Crete and Demers.
Crete says that Andrei Kostitsyn is playing very well and that this has cost Latendresse a lot of ice time tonight, just 1:42. Demers says that Kostitsyn is very talented and is not meant to be a fourth-line player. He adds that Latendresse might be playing hurt.
Everyone has an opinion on movies but not all could direct one. Everyone has an opinion on food but not all could cook a decent meal. Everyone has an opinion on hockey but not all y’all could coach.
Third Period
Montreal 1, Boston 0
Got a call from a spaceman and was late to the ice.
Still no scoring from Boston four minutes in.
Lapierre wins a faceoff against his former mentor, Begin.
Metropolit sets up Pacioretty for a good chance from behind the net. Pacioretty thrushes in; a flurry and a feather. Shot is stopped in the mouth of the tree by Thomas. That stubby keeper of the Boston oak.
Six minutes elapsed.
Andrei is playing well with Pyatt and White. Pyatt shows great effort on the forecheck. Young newbie’s enthusiasm. But I like it whenever I see it. I always hope it lasts. Very few keep that level. Pacioretty is one. But he’s still trying to prove he’s a regular.
Begin kept it. What a loss for our battery. But there have always been guys like that in the league. And I imagine always will be. Players who know they have to work hard every shift just to stay on that good side of the borderline between the NHL and the bus-ride, bad snack minors.
Kostopoulos had that kept-energy. Still sucked to see him go. Sucked overly salted beef jerky. Bad snack. Bad imagery, sure.
Lunchpail score. Remember when Gilles Gilbert and Bernie Parent had that 1-0 game? Both would have interesting things to share.
Carle, Pacioretty and Metropolit are all playing like overtimers. Hard to believe they don’t score on this sequence. Boston is beaten. Each man loses their battle. But they clamber to the front of the net well enough.
Now Ryder reminds us he plays on the Bruins. Shot creates a brief scare for Price.
We go the other way with Kostitsyn showing frightful acceleration; I was wondering who had that kind of speed. Gets a sharp-angle shot which is stopped.
About ten minutes.
Maybe Kovalev should phone Kostitsyn and give him some advice. I wonder how well they got along. Is Kovie an old-school lecturer? Or is he a story-telling grandfather who doesn’t listen? Mentorship. The pros and the cons.
Boston is not very interested in this game. Well not enough.
Montreal takes a penalty with just under seven minutes. High stick. Latendresse. Latendresse looks confused about the call. Replay shows he tapped a Bruin on the face. Good call. Accidental stick to the face.
Here’s Boston’s chance to come out of the closet and ruin the quiet, pleasant candlelight evening. Meet the Dockers.
Montreal keeps messing up Boston’s entry and they can’t get set up inside the blue line. Just :47, as the play is stopped. (I suddenly discover my inner mouse squeaking; “Please let Carey Price become as iconic as Martin Brodeur!!”)
Play resumes. Boston controls it finally.
Move it around.
No shots. Finally one from the side. Price is hunkered down a la Huet and is a closed side-door.
Plekanec takes it down but can’t get good composite on it.
Penalty ends.
Four minutes.
Gomez line is on.
Price gives it away up the middle and Bergeron flies down and tests the team with a shot that floats upwards after a fortuitous deflection.
White then flubs a chance huffing down the right side. Action is now frenzying.
Bears are stirring.
Getting a bit stickish, too.
Minute and a half. Well, it’s not us waiting to pull Price this time. I likes dat.
I’m sick and haven’t had a coffee for six days, I suddenly recall. Beans for me. Beans for Boston. Caffeine for the Canadiens. Give it to us.
Claude Julien calls a timeout. Thomas leaves the net. No time-out. Just the goalie being pulled.
Price. And Price. And freeze. Freezen. That would be a good new word for hockey-writers. Freezen.
Not a lot of hair for Julien.
Faceoff to the right of Price. But first, a timeout. Muller does most of the talking, as usual, during the Montreal time-out.
Chara does most of the standing for Boston. Anything he does is noticed more because of his gigantic size. Six-foot-nine.
Boston wins the faceoff. Pass goes back. Wind-up. Shot. Goes in. Bergeron.
Boston 1, Montreal 1
What a waste. Of a great Montreal effort. Especially Price.
Chara was parked in front of the net.
Forty-five seconds.
Crowd is more awake. But they sound more drunk than fired up. Yes, I can tell.
Seconds trickle away. And we have to go for a seventh overtime game this season.
Overtime
We see the Bergeron goal. I feel bad for Carey Price.
We get a shot of Peter Chiarelli. I’ve never seen him before but I know it’s him the moment they show him. Viard.
Four-on-four.
Cammelleri and Plekanec.
This is the part where it gets harder to write.
I’d rather concentrate on praying.
Bergeron goes in and sneaks a shot in behind a screen. Price makes a good extended glove save. It could have gone in. And as I think of players that could have made that go in, Houde says “Ovechkin”. Precisement.
Now Montreal goes offside. Mara doesn’t like it. Houde says it was at the limit.
Just under four minutes.
Boston people are chanting more than ever tonight.
Silence these beasts.
Wheeler sends a puck too far on a two-on-one. Lucky.
Now Cammalleri whit-whit-whit’s his way in but Plekanec is taken down and offside.
Price comes out to handle a puck.
Time shrinks. We’re at fifteen seconds.
Price makes a few more good saves to close the final minutes. We go to a shootout. And there is a bit of annoyance between the players. Mara and Begin are there. Paille and Mara were the initial dancers. It is nothing much and the Zambonis are shown as we go to the commercial. Two Zambonis. The term Zamboni is like the term Kleenex. I wonder what the real term for a Zamboni is. I wonder who the founder of the Zamboni company is.
Shootout
I’m not interested in stats and process tonight. I just want to see a win. Because tonight that is what the team deserves.
Wheeler. Price. Great save. Glove. Smile.
Cammalleri. Goal. Goooooal!
What a release.
Bergeron. Misses the net.
Gomez. Thomas. Glove save. Very nice.
Recchi. Recchi. Great deke. Price. Stops it. Canadiens win.
And Price is fired up after the last stop. He wanted this one badly. I can’t help but feel good for the kid.
Montreal 2
Boston 1 (SO)
HDS Stars: Carey Price. Glen Metropolit. Josh Gorges.
RDS Stars: Carey Price. Patrice Bergeron. Andrei Kostitsyn.
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